Definitions and Their Uses

• The definiendum is the symbol being defined. The definiens

is the symbol (or group of symbols) used to explain the
meaning of the definiendum. Put otherwise, the
definiendum is the term to be defined and the definiens is
the definition of it.
• Definiendum: In any definition, the word or symbol being
defined.
• Definiens: In any definition, a symbol or group of symbols
that is said to have the same meaning as the definiendum.
Five kinds of definitions :
• 1. Stipulative Definitions. A definition in which a new
symbol is introduced or deliberately assigned to which
some meaning is arbitrarily assigned. stipulative
definition cannot be correct or incorrect. It may
simply be convenient; one word may stand for many
words in a message. It may protect secrecy, if the
sender and the receiver are the only persons who
understand the stipulation.
• A stipulative definition is neither true nor false; it is neither
accurate nor in- accurate. A symbol defined by a stipulative
definition did not have that meaning before it was given that
meaning by the definition, so the definition cannot be a
report of the term’s meaning. For anyone who accepts the
stipulative definition, the definiendum and the definiens have
the same meaning; that is a consequence of the definition,
not a fact asserted by it. A stipulative definition is a proposal
(or a resolution or a request or an instruction) to use the
definiendum to mean what is meant by the definiens. Such a
definition is therefore directive rather than informative.
Proposals may be rejected, requests refused, instructions
disobeyed but they can be neither true nor false.
• Stipulative definitions may be evaluated as useful in
advancing some purpose, or as useless because they
are too complex or unclear, but they cannot resolve
genuine disagreements. By reducing the emotive role
of language, however, and by simplifying discourse,
they can help to prevent fruitless conflict.
•2. Lexical definition. When the purpose of
the definition is to explain that use, or to
eliminate ambiguity, the definition is called
lexical. A lexical definition reports a meaning
the definiendum already has. That report
may be correct or incorrect—and therefore
it is clear that a lexical definition may be
either true or false.
• 3. Precising definitions. A term is ambiguous in a given
context when it has more than one distinct meaning
and the context does not make clear which meaning is
intended. A term is vague when there are borderline
cases to which the term might or might not apply. A
word or a phrase—for example, “libel” or “freedom of
speech”—may be both ambiguous and vague. Precising
definitions are those used to eliminate ambiguity or
vagueness.
• Every term is vague to some degree, but excessive
vagueness causes serious practical problems. This is
particularly true in the law, where acts that are
forbidden by some statute need to be sharply defined.
• 4. Theoretical Definitions. A definition that
encapsulates an understanding of the theory in
which that term is a key element. Such
definitions, when they are faulty, are criticized
not so much because they are not precise as
because they are not adequate—they do not
correctly encapsulate the theory in question.
• 5. Persuasive definition. A definition formulated and
used to resolve a dispute by influencing attitudes or
stirring emotions, often relying upon the use of
emotive language. A definition put for- ward to
resolve a dispute by influencing attitudes or stirring
emotions may be called a persuasive definition.
• Persuasive definitions are common in political
argument. From the left we hear socialism defined as
“democracy extended to the economic sphere.” From
the right we hear capitalism defined as “freedom in
the economic sphere.”
The Structure of Definitions:
Extension and Intension
• A definition states the meaning of a term. When we
look closely at the literal (or descriptive) meaning of a
term, however, we see that there are different senses
in which that term has meaning. We focus on general
terms that are applicable to more than one object
• Extension: The collection of all the objects to which a
term may correctly be applied. The extension of the
general term “planet” consists of the objects to which
the term may be correctly applied. The extensional
meaning (also called the denotative meaning) of a
general term is the collection of the objects that
constitutes the extension (or denotation) of the term.
All the objects within the extension of a given term
have some common attributes or characteristics that
lead us to use the same term to denote them.
• The extension of a term (its membership) is
determined by its intension. The intension of the term
“equilateral triangle” is the attribute of being a plane
figure enclosed by three straight lines of equal length.
The extension of “equilateral triangle” is the class of
all those objects, and only those objects, that have
this attribute. Because any object that has this
attribute must be a member of that class, we say that
the term’s intension determines its extension.
• Intension: The attributes shared by all and only the
objects in the class that a given term denotes; the
connotation of the term. In this meaning supposes
some criterion for deciding, with respect to any given
object, whether it falls within the extension of that
term. This sense of meaning is called the intensional
meaning (or, sometimes, connotative meaning) of the
term. The set of attributes shared by all and only
those objects to which a general term refers is called
the intension (or connotation) of that term.
Extension and Denotative Definitions
• Denotative definition. A definition that identifies the
extension of a term, by (for example) listing the
members of the class of objects to which the term
refers. An extensional definition employ technique
that identify the extension of the term being defined.
The most obvious way to explain the extension of a
term is to identify the objects denoted by it.
• Ostensive definition. A kind of denotative definition
in which the objects denoted by the term being
defined are referred to by means of pointing, or with
some other gesture; sometimes called a
demonstrative definition. Instead of naming or
describing the objects denoted by the term being
defined, as ordinary denotative definitions do, we
might try pointing at them. Such definitions are called
ostensive definitions or demonstrative definitions. An
exam-ple of an ostensive definition is “the word ‘desk’
means this,” accompanied by a gesture such as
pointing a finger in the direction of a desk.
• Quasi-ostensive definition. A variety of denotative
definition that relies upon gesture, in conjunction with
a descriptive phrase. This ambiguity might sometimes
be resolved by adding a descriptive phrase to the
definiens, thus producing a quasi-ostensive definition
—for example, “the word ‘desk’ means this article of
furniture” accompanied by the appropriate gesture.